3/4 cup warm water
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 cups bread or all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon table salt
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1. Add the water and oil to the bread pan. Add the flour, sugar, and salt on top of the water & oil. Spread out the top of the dry ingredients. Make a slight depression in the center of the flour and put the yeast there.
2. Secure the bread pan in the machine and close the cover. Select the "Dough" setting and start the machine. When it's done, remove the dough.
3. Divide the dough into 2 portions and shape each portion into a round. Transfer the dough rounds to an oiled and floured Ziploc bag, and store in the refrigerator for one to five days.

Assembling the Pizza
On pizza night, with the dough and sauce done ahead of time, you can focus on the toppings. Keep it simple for the kids with a cheese pizza. Look for a Wisconsin-made mozzarella and shred it yourself. Beyond cheese, anything goes, but use a light hand with the toppings. Cheese & Sausage is a regular at our house, but the Italian sausage needs to be cooked first before it goes on the pizza. Pepperoni is classic and easy. Sauteed mushrooms, onions, or peppers are other good choices.
prepared pizza dough
1/4 cup pizza sauce, more to taste
1 cup freshly shredded mozzarella cheese
other toppings as you desire
extra flour for dusting counter
cornmeal for dusting peel
1. The dough needs to be room temperature before you start shaping, so take it out of the refrigerator several hours before meal time. About an hour before you begin assembling the pizzas, start preheating the oven. Put the pizza stone on the oven rack in the lowest position. Turn the oven to 525 degrees F and let the oven and stone preheat for at least an hour.
2. Once the dough has lost it's chill, punch the 2 dough balls down and reshape each into a round, flattened disc. Sprinkle some flour on your work surface to keep the dough from sticking. Using your hands or a rolling pin, press, stretch or roll the dough into a 12 to 14 inch round. Check frequently that dough is not sticking and sprinkle more flour as needed. Take a break and let the dough rest if it starts to resist or shrink.
3. Sprinkle a handful of cornmeal onto the pizza peel. Transfer one of the dough rounds to the peel. Shake the peel to make sure the dough moves freely and is not sticking to the peel.

4. Spread 1/4 to 1/3 cup pizza sauce (recipe below) on the dough, leaving an inch around the edge free of sauce. Next add (non-cheese) toppings of your choice if desired. Use toppings sparingly though, don't overload the dough.
5. Finish by sprinkling freshly shredded mozzarella cheese (about 1 cup, more to taste) over the sauce and toppings. Again, less is more. At this point, a light sprinkling of Parmesan and/or dried oregano is optional.
6. Slide the pizza from the peel to the stone. You need to get it moving with a firm jerk. Bake the pizza for about 4 to 6 minutes or till done. The pizza is done when the crust is golden brown around the edge and the cheese is browned in spots. Let the pizza cool for at least 10 minutes before slicing.
7. If you're ready with another pizza, you can slide it directly onto the stone. If you're not ready with the next pizza or if you want the stone to heat up some more, carefully brush residual cornmeal off the stone. Otherwise it will start to burn and smoke as the stone heats up awaiting the next pizza.
Troubleshooting Homemade Pizza
You may need to make adjustments to the oven temperature or placement of pizza stone and oven rack to optimize the pizza. In my experience, the cheese has a tendency to be done before the crust is crispy enough. In that case, I cover the cheese with a bit of foil for the final minute(s).
The other issue is blistering in the dough as it cooks. Small to medium sized blisters are desirable and delicious. But sometimes (not always) enormous blisters form. My strategies for dealing with blisters have run from poking holes in the raw dough with a fork before topping to ignoring them and hoping for best. A compromise solution is to check for blisters after a minute or so and to pierce and deflate any unusually large blisters with a knife. The finished pizza may be marred by craters, but will still be delicious.


Pizza Sauce
This recipe is adapted from Peter Reinhart's "Crushed Tomato Sauce" in American Pie. For me, dried oregano defines pizza sauce and fennel makes it fabulous, but use whatever herbs you prefer. I've found the thickness of crushed tomatoes vary by brand; some are very thick. In that case I thin out the sauce with a bit of water and/or wine. You can use the sauce right away, but it's better with an overnight rest in the refrigerator. This recipe makes a lot of sauce -- enough for many pizzas. Store the leftovers in the freezer, preferably in 1 cup portions.
1 can (28 ounces) crushed tomatoes
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons dried oregano
3/4 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed
2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt, more to taste
pinch sugar (optional)
Combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl and stir well. Taste for salt; add more as needed. If the tomatoes have no added salt, I typically use an additional 1/2 teaspoon (totalling 1 teaspoon salt). Sometimes, I add a pinch of sugar or more vinegar to get the right sweet-tart balance. If it seems too thick, stir in a bit of water.
